The positions are my best guesstimate of where they'll play/the role they'll play the most. Where they rank was determined by prior playing time, draft position, and/or estimated skill level.

Cooks and Stills, for instance, are pretty interchangeable role wise but I think Cooks will be asked to take on more of those quick hitting routes Sproles ran from the slot more so than Stills. Colston also plays in the slot about half the time but he runs more possession routes regardless of where he's lined up.

If anyone has questions, comments about a player's position/rank, or anything else just let it fly.

will be interesting to see how much they split time if Bunkley stays healthy. He hurt his calf or something like that against the Falcons in the first game last year and Jenkins saw playing time from the get go.

Well please elaborate. Stills played both outside and slot in college and did the same for us last year. He mostly played the outside deep role but also played some of what Moore did.

Payton has already stated that Cooks can and will play the slot and outside. He can obviously fly at 4.33 and be a deep threat, but I think his acceleration is better suited to running quick hitting routes.

Seems pretty interchangeable to me. Never said that one would or wouldn't be better in either role, but they both can play both.

Bunkley played in 12 games and started 10, but he only played 25% of the total snaps whereas Jenkins played 45%. I'm not sure those 4 games Bunkley missed makes up that difference.

Either way they will both see plenty of time. Bunkley is a great run defender whereas Jenkins was known as more of a pass rusher in college with the size to be effective against the run. Call them 1A and 1B.

quote:doesn't Colston line up in the slot often?

I mentioned that in my post. The WR listings are more about the routes they are running than where they line up.

Payton loves to take guys that do one thing and move them to a spot that normally doesn't do that thing to create mismatches.

So while Colston spends half of his time in the slot, he is still running more of those possession routes. Moore was actually a hybrid possession/slot receiver with the routes he ran.

Again, these guys and their roles are interchangeable(not just the WRs either) as are the spots they will line up at. I'm just listing what I think their main role will be.

I really see Stills as a more traditional wideout. If anything, he's more interchangeable with a healthy Joe Morgan than Cooks.

Cooks is more that *forgive my Grudenism here* "Joker" that Payton has always utilized. More like a Bush/Sproles type in the passing game.--obviously I'm not confusing him with a running back but Sproles lined up wide or in the slot on a substantial percentage of his snaps. I see Cooks running a lot of those routes. I wouldn't be shocked if Cooks--depending on what he shows to be his skill set--running routes out of the backfield from a flanker spot on some plays.

I think the "Lance Moore" role may be the little area where Stills' and Cooks' roles "overlap" but I don't think we really totally replace Moore. Payton's system adapts to the personnel at his disposal. I just think it's lazy to look at both of these players and say, "Hey, they both run really fast. They must be interchangeable."

I agree with all of that and I didn't mean perfectly interchangeable. I just meant interchangeable enough to where they both can run slants, posts, flys, quick hitches, etc.

Obviously Stills doesn't have that same explosiveness that Cooks has so he won't be running stuff like the quick option or WR screen and stuff that relies on great initial burst.

I actually think Stills is a great do it all wideout in that he can run any traditional route and be effective enough at it.

On the flipside, while Cooks can run the speed routes and quick hitters, I'm not sure how effective he would be running Colston type routes.

I definitely didn't mean both are fast so they do exactly the same thing. Maybe I could have been more clear but it was just meant to be a quick example.

And no problem.

I'm actually more curious what people think of the new Dlinemen and LBs we picked up and where they might fit. I tried to read up as best I could and watched some highlights on some of them but they are hard to project. I also imagine there is a lot of overlap which makes it harder.

quote:Again, these guys and their roles are interchangeable(not just the WRs either) as are the spots they will line up at. I'm just listing what I think their main role will be.

yeah, I hear you.

actually Colston could rip shite this year if he can avoid some of those nagging injuries.

I don't think he had a huge drop off last year. I mean, there were 3 games where he was hobbled and was a non-factor. But when you look at his final numbers, he wasn't that far off from his usual output.

sure, he's getting older and he wasn't the same sometimes but its like some people around here hit the panic button on him.

I guess I'm not looking into it the right way though. I'm a Colston homer so I'm sure people will disagree with my opinion immensely, and that's fine.

just like his chances with the real possibility that Stills and Cooks help open things up for him. Stills showed a lot of promise last year so I think he'll continue to improve. I'm not sure about Cooks... I mean he hasn't played a down yet.

I think he could get off to a fast start(Cooks).

But as time goes on... and teams adjust... Colston and others may benefit.

Strief has been solid when he's in there but he's been nagged some injuries too the last few years. I know he's in the longer term plans now because of his new deal but somebody better be ready to step in if he gets hurt again.

I think he had a groin injury in 2012 vs. the Eagles on MNF. Pretty sure he also got hurt against the Texans in 2011 also. Brown had to play a few games at RT if I remember right in his place that year.

I think Strief played most of the time this past season but missed a game here or there.